by Ann Karoline Jessen
For this assignment,
we were supposed to choose a topic to write about and I chose fairy tales. For this
assignment I chose a fairy tale by the Grimm Brothers called “Hansel and Gretel”
(Text and drawing copyright©1972 Random House, from the Pantheon book The
Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales). This
is a known fairy tale that I do believe a lot of children will recognize.
Link to the
fairy tale: http://www.mordent.com/folktales/grimms/hng/hng.html
The story of
Hansel and Gretel is about a poor family. The parents leaves the children out
in the woods one night so they will be able to survive themselves. While looking
for the trail back home Hansel and Gretel finds a house, build of bread and
covered in cake, being hungry as they are they start eating. The old woman who
lives in the house invites them inside. She seems kind at first but she is
really a wicked witch who plans to eat them. After spending a month on
fattening Hansel, she decides that the time has come and demands Gretel to help
her. The wicked witch orders Gretel in to an oven but Gretel is bright enough
and asks the witch to show her how it’s done. When the witch have her head
inside the oven, Gretel pushes her inside and locks the door. Gretel then sets
her brother free and they grab as much pearls and jewels before they head back
home.
This story
opens for discussion around different topics like, who to trust?, and would you
have done something differently if you were the parents of the poor children?
The Grimm
Brothers infused the stories they published with their own values, 19th-century
middle-class culture, values and morals (Gamble, 2013 p. 142). This topic about
values, morals and culture in this era would be interesting to discuss with the
pupils in 6th or 7th grade. (Side note: For this to be
possible, the pupils need to have and understanding and have knowledge about
the topic). I would have used this text in grade 6 or 7. The text from the
Grimm Brothers is a little bit on the edge, but in today society and being
their age I think this text would work.
Some of the
competence aims after 7th grade is “read and understand different types of texts of varying length from different sources”,
“express oneself creatively inspired by different types of English literature from various sources”
and “read children’s and youth literature in English and converse about persons and content”. I would use this text to both for
reading and understanding because some of the language is rather old i.e. “(…)
Take us across on thy back so white.” Just this piece contains a word that isn’t
used anymore and that means the story can be used as a gateway to talk a little
bit about the English language and even compare it to old Norwegian which is
something that 7th graders have a little knowledge about. I would
also use it in a creative way because it opens for creativity in many ways like
drawing, arts and crafts or radio theatre.
Sources:
Gamble,
N. (2013). Exploring Children’s Literature: Reading with Pleasure and
Purpose. 3rd ed. London: Sage Publications Ltd.
Utdanningsdirektoratet.
(u.å). National Curriculum for Knowledge Promotion in Primary and
Secondary Education and Training. http://www.udir.no/kl06/eng1-03/Hele/Kompetansemaal/kompetansemal-etter-7.-arstrinn/?lplang=eng
Picture source:
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